Evaluation of the PETsys TOFPET2 ASIC in multi-channel coincidence experiments

Abstract Background Aiming to measure the difference in arrival times of two coincident γ-photons with an accuracy in the order of 200ps, time-of-flight positron emission tomography systems commonly employ silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and high-resolution digitization electronics, application spe...

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Main Authors: Vanessa Nadig, David Schug, Bjoern Weissler, Volkmar Schulz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2021-03-01
Series:EJNMMI Physics
Subjects:
PET
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40658-021-00370-x
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spelling doaj-cf9709ad22c04f2aba26370b5f2efda02021-03-28T11:07:42ZengSpringerOpenEJNMMI Physics2197-73642021-03-018112110.1186/s40658-021-00370-xEvaluation of the PETsys TOFPET2 ASIC in multi-channel coincidence experimentsVanessa Nadig0David Schug1Bjoern Weissler2Volkmar Schulz3Department of Physics of Molecular Imaging Systems, Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen UniversityDepartment of Physics of Molecular Imaging Systems, Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen UniversityDepartment of Physics of Molecular Imaging Systems, Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen UniversityDepartment of Physics of Molecular Imaging Systems, Experimental Molecular Imaging, RWTH Aachen UniversityAbstract Background Aiming to measure the difference in arrival times of two coincident γ-photons with an accuracy in the order of 200ps, time-of-flight positron emission tomography systems commonly employ silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and high-resolution digitization electronics, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This work evaluates the performance of the TOFPET2 ASIC, released by PETsys Electronics S.A. in 2017, dependent on its configuration parameters in multi-channel coincidence measurements. Methods SiPM arrays fabricated by different vendors (KETEK, SensL, Hamamatsu, Broadcom) were tested in combination with the ASIC. Scintillator arrays featuring different reflector designs and different configurations of the TOFPET2 ASIC software parameters were evaluated. The benchtop setup used is provided with the TOFPET2 ASIC evaluation kit by PETsys Electronics S.A. Results Compared to existing studies featuring the TOFPET2 ASIC, multi-channel performance results dependent on a larger set of ASIC configuration parameters were obtained that have not been reported to this extend so far. The ASIC shows promising CRTs down to 219.9 ps in combination with two Hamamatsu S14161-3050-HS-08 SiPM arrays (128 channels read out, energy resolution 13.08%) and 216.1 ps in combination with two Broadcom AFBR-S4N44P643S SiPM arrays (32 channels read out, energy resolution 9.46%). The length of the trigger delay of the dark count suppression scheme has an impact on the ASIC performance and can be configured to further improve the coincidence resolution time. The integrator gain configuration has been investigated and allows an absolute improvement of the energy resolution by up to 1% at the cost of the linearity of the energy spectrum. Conclusion Measuring up to the time-of-flight performance of state-of-the-art positron emission tomography (ToF-PET) systems while providing a uniform and stable readout for multiple channels at the same time, the TOFPET2 ASIC is treated as promising candidate for the integration in future ToF-PET systems.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40658-021-00370-xTime-of-flightApplication-specific integrated circuitsASICPositron emission tomographyPETCoincidence resolution time
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Vanessa Nadig
David Schug
Bjoern Weissler
Volkmar Schulz
spellingShingle Vanessa Nadig
David Schug
Bjoern Weissler
Volkmar Schulz
Evaluation of the PETsys TOFPET2 ASIC in multi-channel coincidence experiments
EJNMMI Physics
Time-of-flight
Application-specific integrated circuits
ASIC
Positron emission tomography
PET
Coincidence resolution time
author_facet Vanessa Nadig
David Schug
Bjoern Weissler
Volkmar Schulz
author_sort Vanessa Nadig
title Evaluation of the PETsys TOFPET2 ASIC in multi-channel coincidence experiments
title_short Evaluation of the PETsys TOFPET2 ASIC in multi-channel coincidence experiments
title_full Evaluation of the PETsys TOFPET2 ASIC in multi-channel coincidence experiments
title_fullStr Evaluation of the PETsys TOFPET2 ASIC in multi-channel coincidence experiments
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of the PETsys TOFPET2 ASIC in multi-channel coincidence experiments
title_sort evaluation of the petsys tofpet2 asic in multi-channel coincidence experiments
publisher SpringerOpen
series EJNMMI Physics
issn 2197-7364
publishDate 2021-03-01
description Abstract Background Aiming to measure the difference in arrival times of two coincident γ-photons with an accuracy in the order of 200ps, time-of-flight positron emission tomography systems commonly employ silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and high-resolution digitization electronics, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). This work evaluates the performance of the TOFPET2 ASIC, released by PETsys Electronics S.A. in 2017, dependent on its configuration parameters in multi-channel coincidence measurements. Methods SiPM arrays fabricated by different vendors (KETEK, SensL, Hamamatsu, Broadcom) were tested in combination with the ASIC. Scintillator arrays featuring different reflector designs and different configurations of the TOFPET2 ASIC software parameters were evaluated. The benchtop setup used is provided with the TOFPET2 ASIC evaluation kit by PETsys Electronics S.A. Results Compared to existing studies featuring the TOFPET2 ASIC, multi-channel performance results dependent on a larger set of ASIC configuration parameters were obtained that have not been reported to this extend so far. The ASIC shows promising CRTs down to 219.9 ps in combination with two Hamamatsu S14161-3050-HS-08 SiPM arrays (128 channels read out, energy resolution 13.08%) and 216.1 ps in combination with two Broadcom AFBR-S4N44P643S SiPM arrays (32 channels read out, energy resolution 9.46%). The length of the trigger delay of the dark count suppression scheme has an impact on the ASIC performance and can be configured to further improve the coincidence resolution time. The integrator gain configuration has been investigated and allows an absolute improvement of the energy resolution by up to 1% at the cost of the linearity of the energy spectrum. Conclusion Measuring up to the time-of-flight performance of state-of-the-art positron emission tomography (ToF-PET) systems while providing a uniform and stable readout for multiple channels at the same time, the TOFPET2 ASIC is treated as promising candidate for the integration in future ToF-PET systems.
topic Time-of-flight
Application-specific integrated circuits
ASIC
Positron emission tomography
PET
Coincidence resolution time
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s40658-021-00370-x
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